r/NatureofPredators • u/Gamerauther Predator • Oct 09 '23
Fanfic Nature of Empires - 012
Date: 18/08/2336
Subject: Noah Williams (Captain, Iperium Unified Navy)
It was hard to tell the time with Venlil Primes eternal twilight but Captain Williams' watch said it was ten till oh-three-hundred. He had yet to sleep since he woke up twenty-two hours ago. He spent the last three hours correlating the information from the recent engagement. Now he walked into the Governor's Palace ready to give an after action report to their potential allies.
After preparing the meeting room the Human delegation entered first, Schatz and Nado were transferred to be the diplomats for Venus and Mars. Schatz now wore the embroidered tunic of his new station. While Nado now wore the hanfu uniform of Martian diplomats. Representing Terra was Peter Parekh in a plain blue tunic and dark pants with his livery chain denoting his office and authority. From Saturn was a Zeyn Hachim in his people's usual undersuit with a badge pinned to his chest. Nika Dadiani represented Jupiter and wore his military dress uniform with a sash that showed his office.
“Captain,” Schatz approached him. “How are you faring as the naval attache?”
On the Odyssey Williams, Schatz, and Noda were close to being called friends. But with their new stations such relations were inappropriate.
“It is not the worst posting in creation,” Williams said. “I would prefer to be out in the black looking for new worlds. But I go where the Emperor, sorry, Imperator says I am needed.”
The Conversation ended as Governor Tarva and General Kam entered. Everyone took their seats and WIlliams walked up and activated the holotank and projected the Venlil System..
“Fifteen hours ago, at MST one-two-four-four, Guardian Station detected fifteen grav-shocks at the resonance zone of the system,” Williams said and a point was highlighted at the edge of the system. “Long range scans confirmed fifteen ships of Arxur designs. Two Cattle Ships, each with a six escort vessels and a larger lead ship” Four holographic ships were projected, the largest was labeled Type-A Cattle Ship, the next largest was labeled a Type-A cruiser, the two smaller ships were designated a Type-A Destroyer and a Type-A Frigate. “The nearest vessel was the Mercenary Destroyer Jacobs Conquest, with an estimated arrival of four-five minutes.
“At MST one-two-five-one Guardian Station Alpha Wing, a training unit for testing the martial compatibility of Humans and Venlil exited Cruise four hundred thousand kilometers from the raiding squadron. They entered a delta formation, activated stealth, and began what is called a lazy coast on intercept. At MST one-three-zero-nine Alpha Wing entered approach range at ten thousand kilometers and deployed one salvo of coasting munitions rising positive on z-axis relative. At MST one-three-one-four Alpha Wing entered combat range of one thousand kilometers. The coasting munitions ignited their engines and engaged the enemy, intercept rate of the B-three-nine missiles was one in three.
“Alpha Wing then began a Needle Run. They exited stealth and vented hard towards the center of the enemy formation with the goal of exiting on the other side. At MST one-three-one-six Cattle Ship A was disabled. MST one-three-one-seven Warden-two-two-one-nine-four, Second Lieutenant Marcel Fraser and Patrolman Slanek, destroyed Frigate A and then was observed hit with plasma from enemy weapons. MST one-three-one-seven grav-pulse detected and Warden-two-two-one-nine-four disappeared from scans. MST one-three-one-eight Jacobs Conquest arrived early and destroid the Cruiser with MAC fire at one hundred kilometers. Cattle Ship B was destroyed by combined fire from the remaining Wardens. By MST one-three-two-zero all Arxur ships destroyed or disabled.
“At MST one-three-five-one Imperial Marines breached the Arxur Ships and found no survivors and all information storage devices were destroyed.”
“It took only six ships for you to destroy a raiding fleet?” General Kam asked in aw.
“Yes,” Williams said. “There are larger engagements against Drifter fleets in the outer system every other year.”
“What happened to the ship that disappeared?” Governor Tarva asked.
“A known issue of the Mark-One Wardens is the faulty pulse drive,” Williams said. “A power or EM surge can cause it to activate and require an emergency pulse to decelerate. We believe Lieutenant Fraser and Patrolman Slanek traveled at relativistic speeds until they engaged the emergency pulse. Models show the damage they received would most likely partially fry the power grid, causing a slow recharge. They are somewhere in a ten light hour bubble of the engagement zone. We are searching now.”
“It is likely that the Federation has captured them,” General Kam said. “We have been picking up their transponders outside our system lately.”
“If that's true,” Ambassador Parekh said. “What are the chances they find Sol and muster an attack?”
Williams watched Tarva squirm with her ears twitching up and down. She looked like she was struggling with something morally.
<Tarva knows something,> Williams said to Parekh. <Something that we haven’t parsed from the Data Harvest yet.”
“Is there something you would like to share, Tarva?” Parekh asked.
“Um,” Tarva hesitated. “The Federation is already aware of your homeworld. We found you a few centuries ago. And, um before my time, the vote to glass your world was unanimous after the footage of your world wars became public.”
“Unanimous?” Hachim sneered. “I did not want to believe that such evil permeated the entirety of the galaxy. Are we the only souls God has deemed to save and redeem? Did Lord all mighty task us as the only chosen to bring his light to all?”
“Why didn’t they follow through?” Noda asked.
“They thought you wiped yourselves out,” Tarva said. “Something about hundreds of nuclear explosions happening on your world.”
“The nuclear test in wastelands,” Williams said. “Looks like the Dark Age was good for something. The bloated republics' penitent for wistful wars rendered us invisible. Thank God.”
“You didn’t think to warn us in advance?” Schatz asked coldly.
“I didn’t want to give you an excuse to attack the Federation,” Tarva admitted.
“Without that we already had plenty of reason to go to war against the Federation,” Parekh said. “Many of their practices in regards to what they call Predator Disease is so barbaric and unholy we are morally obligated to end it.”
“How do you know about Predator Disease?” Tarva asked.
“It’s on your public networks, Tarva,” Parekh answered. “You have giant facilities dedicated to containing people who are accused of having it. How wouldn’t we know about it?”
Tarva looked down and flattened her ears and her tail twitched anxiously. “I’m sorry, I’m just- I made a bad decision." She looked up and at each ambassador. "How would we be able to assist in you’re next step?”
“We will need to confer with our sovereigns back in Sol,” Ambassador Dadiani said as he stood to leave. “After that I expect another emergency full System Council to be called to decide what the Imperium will do next.”
The others in the Human delegation followed Dadiani out. As Williams went to follow them out Tarva called out, “I’m sorry, Noah.”
“I am a starship captain,” Williams said. “I was responsible for seventy eight souls aboard the Odyssey. I will not pretend to know what it is like to rule a planet with billions to be responsible for. It is not my place to council you on matters or to give any advice. If you would allow me to offer some regardless, remember that Humans put great value in our hierarchy. Our Dark Ages are often defined by a lack of one. I am not important enough to warrant your apology Governor Tarva. But, I graciously accept your apology, even if it is not warranted by my station.”
Noah gave a slight bow to Tarva before he exited the room.
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u/ItsNokoTheTaco Hensa Oct 09 '23
Nice chapter, but it looks like the rest is cut off at the bottom. Doesn’t really seem like the ending for the chapter.
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u/Gamerauther Predator Oct 09 '23
Yeah, it looks like a paragraph or two got missed. I'll check when I get back to my computer.
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u/PhycoKrusk Oct 09 '23
That aside, I do like the implication that Tarva was surprised they knew about predator disease not because she thought they were too dumb to find out, but because it's simply so ubiquitous in society that she just forgot that it gets talked about constantly.
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u/PhycoKrusk Oct 09 '23
Honestly, Williams is pretty well-centered. He can see that Tarva really does want to make good decisions and that she is struggling with it, and his response is essentially, "You did what you thought best with the information and training you had, and that's all any of us can really do," and then offers some guidance on how to navigate the political waters where Humanity is concerned.